The market rally of 2009 helped Americans make up some the ground they lost in the crash. But to make the most of the ongoing economic rebound, many investors will have to tweak their game plans. SmartMoney magazine s December cover story, Refresh Your Financial Life, offers strategies for dealing with the shifting landscape.

We admit, it s tempting. The markets are soaring and you re sitting on a pile of cash, feeling like a wallflower at a swing dance. But as much as an investor may want to go all-in in the markets, it s still a good idea to keep enough cash on hand to cover at least three to six months of living expenses, according to many financial advisers. And some planning pros are encouraging clients with riskier financial profiles like folks who work on sales commissions or rely on freelance income to hold even bigger cash cushions, up to a year s worth of expenses.

Savers who want to squeeze more income out of those savings these days often start by thinking local. Small and regional banks generally offer higher rates than the big national banks, which are swimming in deposits and don t have to compete as aggressively for savings customers, says Bankrate analyst Greg McBride. Small banks usually offer fewer branches and services, but yields on local savings accounts can be double the national average, making the move worthwhile. Chicago consultant Scott Summerville went local this year after selling some mutual funds. He now earns 2.3 percent in a savings account with Valley Community Bank, and the FDIC-insured account helps him sleep at night, he says. Savers can also often unearth better rates online, both at online-only banks which can afford to pay higher rates because they don t need to pay, say, tellers and at the online divisions of big banks and credit card companies.

Another option that some advisers recommend: a CD ladder. The idea is to split some cash among certificates of deposit that mature at regular intervals say, every six or 12 months. When interest rates rise (and many analysts think they will) ladder investors can roll money out of maturing CDs and into new, higher-paying ones, says Jim Shagawat, an adviser with Baron Financial Group in Fair Lawn, N.J. And over time they ll earn more than they can expect from investing solely in one-year CDs, which pay just 1.73 percent, on average, these days. There s one option from which savvy investors are fleeing: money-market mutual funds, which pay an average of just 0.05 percent or $50 a year for every $100,000 invested, according to research firm iMoneyNet. Online savings accounts and money-market accounts with banks usually pay much more, says Dylan Ross, a financial planner in East Windsor, N.J. and unlike the mutual funds, they re FDIC-insured. e